Consumer capitalism dictates that, once basic needs such as food and shelter are met, new demands must be invented, so they can then be supplied. Otherwise production might not appear as a positive increase year-on-year. Squeezing mileage out of ageing goods slows the economy. Old is bad.

As a result, Britain is in a state of perpetual generational Cold War. The old fear the young, presuming them to be uncultivated vandals. The young despise the old, presuming them to be tedious Luddites.

Rafael Behr, The Observer, 21 November 2004